Chart date: 22 June 2022
Background
In the political chaos of the UK in 2022, things just keep getting spicier. Kier Starmer, leader of Labour, was accused of breaking COVID lockdown rules. Rumours said that the governing party, the Conservatives, would call a snap general election if he resigned over it. The Conservatives pressured Labour on social media and in person to try and harm their poll ratings.
This is a complex question with many moving parts, but was wonderfully simple to interpret.
Interpretation
The Conservatives are the currently in power, so are Lord 10, ‘the king’. They are Venus. In the chart, they have dignity in Taurus so clearly the smear campaign was having an effect. They had recently moved into House 6. In politics charts, we can take the Moon as the people – the electorate. This fits, as the Conservatives in Taurus exalt the people, wanting their votes. This reinforces the potential they want to call an election.
The opposition is their turned House 7 – Mars. Mars is also dignified, so both parties are trying to act well in this situation, and are doing well.
With both parties in cadent Houses, they lack accidental dignity which shows the power to act. This is fitting as they wait on the verdict from the police over whether Starmer breached rules.
The people, shown by the Moon, were not responding well to the media campaign against Starmer. They favoured Mars by reception and apply to oppose the cusp of the 10th House.
What will happen?
As Venus is near the end of the sign, there are no immediate upcoming aspects to base an event on. Even so, change is in the chart.
Venus is less than a quarter of a degree from moving into Gemini, where it loses all of its essential dignity and becomes peregrine. Here, it loses its interest in the Moon as the electorate. This shows some sort of incident, as changes of dignity always have a cause. Given the Conservatives’ embattled leader, Boris Johnson, another scandal is clearly on the horizon. The nature of the scandal? In Gemini, something airy (spoken) and mutable (lying and double-talk) makes sense. These are common complaints against the Conservative party in recent months.
Timing
Venus changing signs in 15 minutes of arc while travelling faster than her usual speed implies whatever causes the drop in dignity will happen in under 15 days.
Verdict
No, scandal will beset the Conservative party, meaning a general election would not be in their best interests.
Result
Before any further information on Starmer came out, a scandal emerged. Boris Johnson, leader of the Conservatives, had given a job to an MP he knew was accused of sexual assault. In a series of bungles, he first lied about knowing, then admitted knowing, then said that drink was the problem rather than sexual assault itself. He also misled cabinet ministers into lying on his behalf.
As a result, on the 5th of June (13 days from the date of the chart), two top cabinet members, Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid resigned their posts citing Boris Johnson’s leadership as the reason. This was followed by more resignations – more than 50 in total – and has plunged the party into a leadership contest. Boris Johnson has been forced to resign as leader of the Conservatives (on the 7th of July, 15 days after the chart was cast), though says he will remain ‘caretaker PM’ until the leadership contest is over.
On the 8th of July, Kier Starmer was cleared of misconduct by the police, so would not have been forced to resign.
